Breeding my bettas!

[mdellasalla]

As of this morning, still no bubbles, but a lot of pacing between her and the cup. It is kind of sweet how she follows him as much as she can and will be at the same tank level as he is. There was still a lot of flaring on both sides this morning. He has even been nipping at the bottle that contains her. He is going to have a heck of a time convincing her he is king of the breeding tank. She thinks she is ultimate ruler of everything :P

I stained their water with a bit more tea. I didn't want it to be too much. Next time I will use the Indian almond leaf for sure.

Well today I sit and wait and hopefully there is a bubble nest later!

[mdellasalla]

He still hasn't started a nest yet. He has lots of tiny bubbles kind of evenly spaced throughout the tank, but no real nest.

Also I think she has lost interest in him... She no longer has stripes although she is still full of eggs. She flares at him when he flares at her still. Should I abort this try and maybe give it another go next time she is eggy?

[mdellasalla]

She still watching him, he still flares at her and goes under the cup, and I just witnessed him practicing a squeeze.

Bettalvr, you said you had only seen ones that made nests after the female was released? Was that after she began swimming head down for him? I don't want to let her out and have her beat him up :P

[mdellasalla]

breeding aborted. Fish have velvet

[wiccansinger]

OMG! thats not good O.O i hope your fish get well soon

[mdellasalla]

Me too I started treating with Maracide the second I knew what it was. Female seems to be doing well, but she is the hardiest fish I have ever seen. She doesn't give a crap if you change her water to medicated and tinted green. Male on the other hand is super stressed but at least he is still swimming. I think he gets stressed super easily and that is how I got into this in the first place. The velvet defiantly started with him. It didn't manifest in anything besides the copper dust on his body, so hopefully I caught it on time...

This is my first time with fish having velvet so I am kind of really scared

[4redsta]

i think u rushed into things abit. i've had my male in the tank for 3 weeks.

[mdellasalla]

I mean maybe, but he was fine with being in the tank. I was told to wait until he was comfortable and he was. Either way, there's nothing I can do about it now other than treat them.

[BettaLu&Meg]

Rushing these little things can be a problem, definitly take a look at the threads in the beggining of the breeding sections to help you out with the preperation and i will help you out with everything else if you want a professionals help in breeding

[bettalvr]

mdellasalla, I'm going to support you on this one. There is no "rule" as to when you introduce the pair. I know people who have received fish and bred them within a couple of days and done fine. You did your preparations and it just wasn't meant to be at this time. Your fish appeared healthy when you introduced them and that's about all you can do unless you have the ability to do testing to see if they are harboring anything - which most of us do not have access to. Just give these guys time to recover, wait a good month or so, recondition them and try again. If it happens a second time, then probably re-evaluate at that time.